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143-442: Zombieland is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer (in his theatrical debut) and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick . It stars Woody Harrelson , Jesse Eisenberg , Emma Stone , Abigail Breslin , and Bill Murray . In the film, Tallahassee (Harrelson), Columbus (Eisenberg), Wichita (Stone), and Little Rock (Breslin) make their way on an extended cross-country road trip to find

286-521: A BAFTA Award , four Golden Globe Awards , and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards . His Oscar nominations include a Best Actor nod for his role as Larry Flynt in the 1996 biographical drama The People vs. Larry Flynt , and Best Supporting Actor for his portrayals of a Gulf War veteran and a police chief in 2009's The Messenger and 2017's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri , respectively. On television, his breakthrough role as bartender Woody Boyd earned him five Emmy nominations in

429-538: A Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast, along with Tommy Lee Jones , Javier Bardem , Josh Brolin , and Kelly Macdonald . In 2007's Battle in Seattle , Harrelson played another key role of a Seattle police officer whose pregnant wife loses her baby during the 1999 World Trade Organization protests. In 2008, Harrelson appeared in several films, among them the Will Ferrell basketball comedy Semi-Pro and

572-644: A Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role . In 2017, he played the antagonist The Colonel in the science fiction film War for the Planet of the Apes . Also that year, he starred in comedic drama film The Glass Castle , an adaptation of Jeannette Walls 's memoir. In 2018, Harrelson played Tobias Beckett , a criminal and Han Solo 's mentor in Lucasfilm 's Solo: A Star Wars Story . In 2018, Harrelson appeared in

715-493: A US invasion of Iraq as a "racist and imperialist war". He also stated that he was against the U.S.'s previous war in Iraq and President Bill Clinton 's sanctions against Iraq . In 2013, Harrelson condemned President Barack Obama for failing to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, negatively comparing him to Richard Nixon . In 2023, he appeared to endorse Robert F. Kennedy Jr . In May 2024, Kennedy's campaign released

858-484: A spec script for a television pilot in the summer of 2005. Wernick stated, "We've got a long brainstorming document that still to this day gets updated on a near-weekly basis with ideas". Director Ruben Fleischer helped develop the script from a series into a self-contained feature by providing a specific destination to the road story, the amusement park. Earlier versions of the script called the protagonists Flagstaff and Albuquerque, rather than Columbus and Tallahassee, and

1001-472: A "Zombie Kill of the Week" winner, and whose surname is actually an obsolete term for a citizen or inhabitant of New York City. The one exception is Murray playing himself. At the end of the film, Wichita tells Columbus that her real name is Krista. Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick stated that the idea for Zombieland had "lived in [their] heads" for four-and-a-half years. The story was originally developed as

1144-414: A "long, long time" and that while the film did little to advance the genre, its smart script and high action made it very enjoyable. Savlov categorized Zombieland as being "dead set against being dead serious" with its tonal pallor "ha[ving] more in common with a foreshortened It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World than with 28 Days or Weeks Later ". The film's witty use of dialogue and popular culture

1287-490: A 1986 football comedy with Goldie Hawn . He followed his performance in Wildcats with the 1990 romantic comedy Cool Blue , alongside Hank Azaria . He reunited with Wesley Snipes (who also had debuted in Wildcats ) in the box-office hit White Men Can't Jump (1992) and the action movie Money Train (1995). In 1993, Harrelson starred opposite Robert Redford and Demi Moore in the drama Indecent Proposal , which

1430-517: A 7-minute short film for U2 's 'Song for Someone.' In 2016, Harrelson announced that he would direct, write, produce, and star in a film, Lost in London , which was shot as a single take and premiered live on January 19, 2017. Harrelson played police chief Bill Willoughby in the black comedy crime film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri , released in 2017, for which he received nominations for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and

1573-554: A Limited Series or Movie for his portrayal of Steve Schmidt in the HBO film Game Change (2012), and for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Marty Hart in the HBO crime anthology series True Detective (2014). He portrayed E. Howard Hunt in the HBO political limited series White House Plumbers (2023) and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film . Woodrow Tracy Harrelson

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1716-724: A brief respite in an empty, lavish mansion". Claudia Puig of USA Today said, "underlying the carnage in Zombieland is a sweetly beating heart", and, "This road movie/horror flick/dark comedy/earnest romance/action film hybrid laces a gentle drollness through all the bloody mayhem". Entertainment Weekly ' s Lisa Schwarzbaum concluded, "At the bone, Zombieland is a polished, very funny road picture shaped by wisenheimer cable-TV sensibilities and starring four likable actors, each with an influential following". Josh Levin of Slate drew parallels with Adventureland : in both films, Jesse Eisenberg tries to win over his dream girl,

1859-891: A cameo at the end of the film Venom , portraying Cletus Kasady , and he reprised the role as the main antagonist, also voicing the symbiote Carnage who joins with Kasady, in the 2021 sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage . In 2019, he starred with Kevin Costner in The Highwaymen . In November 2019, he starred in Roland Emmerich 's blockbuster movie Midway , playing Admiral Chester Nimitz. The same year he reprised his role of Tallahassee in Zombieland 2: Double Tap (2019). Starting in 2019, Harrelson made numerous appearances portraying Joe Biden on Saturday Night Live , replacing Jim Carrey . In March 2021, he

2002-471: A final gross of $ 75,590,286 in North America and $ 26,801,254 in other territories for a worldwide gross of $ 102,391,540. Zombieland received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 89% based on reviews from 259 critics, with a rating average of 7.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Wickedly funny and featuring plenty of gore, Zombieland is proof that

2145-527: A former college student with a unique set of zombie survival rules, travels from Austin, Texas , towards Columbus, Ohio , to search for his parents. On the way, he meets Tallahassee, who somewhat reluctantly agrees to give Columbus a ride towards Ohio. On the way, he mentions to Columbus that he misses his puppy, Buck, who was killed by zombies. The pair meet con artist sisters Wichita and Little Rock, who trick Tallahassee and Columbus and steal their weapons and Escalade after Little Rock feigns being bitten by

2288-452: A future threat. In the video game Chrono Trigger (1995), the giant alien creature Lavos collides with the earth in prehistoric times, subsequently hibernating beneath the earth. As millions of years pass, the monster feeds on the energy of the earth, eventually surfacing in 1999 to wreak complete destruction of the human race, atmosphere, and general life on the planet in the form of a rain of destruction fired from its outer shell, known as

2431-442: A game—how can you survive a zombie horde armed with a shotgun, an SUV and a smart mouth?" A trailer of Zombieland was released on June 18, 2009. Distributed by Columbia Pictures, the film was released on October 2, 2009, a week earlier than originally advertised. Zombieland was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on February 2, 2010, on Blu-ray and DVD . The film was released on March 15, 2010, on DVD and Blu-ray in

2574-580: A girl who has been hardened by life, and both feature a theme park. He goes so far as to call the film "an undead Adventureland —a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for the Facebook generation". Time 's Richard Corliss described the film as "an exhilarating ride, start to finish" and reasoned " Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg set a high bar for this subgenre with Shaun of the Dead , but Reese, Wernick, and Fleischer may have trumped them". "This isn't just

2717-450: A good zombie comedy. It's a damn fine movie, period. And that's high praise, coming from a vampire guy", he stated. Not all comparisons with Shaun of the Dead were favorable: Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York characterized the "extra injection of pop-culture neuroticism" as "the one innovation" of the film, declaring that while Zombieland was funny, it was not particularly scary and stated that it "simply isn't as witty as Shaun of

2860-463: A group of friends who discover an alien invasion during a pub crawl in their hometown. In the 2018 horror film A Quiet Place , the 2021 sequel A Quiet Place Part II , and a 2024 movie A Quiet Place: Day One society has collapsed in the wake of lethal attacks by extraterrestrial creatures who, having no eyesight, hunt humans and other creatures with their highly sensitive hearing; the scattered survivors live most of their lives in near-silence as

3003-695: A hemp oil-fueled biodiesel bus with the Spitfire Agency (the subject of the independent documentary Go Further ) and narrated the 1999 documentary Grass . He briefly owned an oxygen bar in West Hollywood called "O2". Harrelson has spoken publicly against the 2003 invasion of Iraq as well as previously protesting against the First Gulf War , both at UCLA as well as during a college concert tour in Iowa and Nebraska in 1991 under

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3146-521: A horned fish and Shesha appeared as a rope, with which Vaivasvata Manu fastened the boat to the horn of the fish. Variants of this story also appear in Buddhist and Jain scriptures. The 1st centuries CE saw the recording of the Book of Revelation (from which the word apocalypse originated, meaning ' {{{1}}} ' ), which is filled with prophecies of destruction, as well as luminous visions. In

3289-706: A multinational effort is put in place to construct an ark for the preservation of Humanity, built around the International Space Station . Brian Aldiss ' novel Hothouse (1961) occurs in a distant future where the Sun is much hotter and stronger, and the human population has been reduced to a fifth of what it had been. J. G. Ballard 's novel The Drowned World (1962) occurs after a rise in solar radiation that causes worldwide flooding and accelerated mutation of plants and animals. Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven 's novel, Lucifer's Hammer (1977),

3432-466: A new Heaven and a new Earth, and its intended Christian audience is often enchanted and inspired, rather than terrified by visions of Judgment Day. These Christians believed themselves chosen for God's salvation, and so such apocalyptic sensibilities inspired optimism and nostalgia for the end times. The Norse poem Völuspá from the Poetic Edda details the creation, coming doom, and rebirth of

3575-514: A non-technological future world or a world where only scattered elements of society and technology remain. Numerous ancient societies, including the Babylonian and Judaic, produced apocalyptic literature and mythology which dealt with the end of the world and human society, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh , written c. 2000–1500 BCE. Recognizable modern apocalyptic novels had existed since at least

3718-404: A one-way trip to Mars . When the Sun begins to go nova, everything is on schedule, but most of the spaceships turn out to be defective, and fail en route to Mars. In Neal Stephenson 's novel Seveneves , The Moon is destroyed by an unknown agent, forming a massive debris cloud. This cloud threatens to produce a White Sky , which then causes a massive bombardment of Moon fragments. Due to this,

3861-466: A plague or virus, whether natural or man-made; religious, such as the Rapture or Great Tribulation ; or imaginative, such as zombie apocalypse or alien invasion . The story may involve attempts to prevent an apocalypse event, deal with the impact and consequences of the event itself, or may be post-apocalyptic and set after the event. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on

4004-423: A possible sequel, with many more ideas they wanted to explore. In August 2016, Reese and Wernick confirmed that they were working on Zombieland 2 and meeting with Woody Harrelson to discuss the film, while stating "all the cast is pretty excited." The film, Zombieland: Double Tap , featuring the return of the original cast, was released on October 18, 2019, the tenth anniversary of the original film's release, and

4147-531: A preventative measure against COVID-19 to be "absurd", adding, "I'm sick of like, you're wearing a mask, and you think it contains your breath—but if it did you'd die, you'd be breathing in your own carbon monoxide [ sic ]." On June 1, 1996, Harrelson was arrested in Lee County, Kentucky , after symbolically planting four hemp seeds to challenge the state law that did not distinguish between industrial hemp and marijuana. Harrelson had arrived in

4290-488: A real cool hat". Harrelson's choice of headwear for Tallahassee came not just down to style, but also to his environmental passions: the distinctive hat is handmade in Brazil by a company called The Real Deal using recycled cargo-truck tarps and wire from old truck tires. Shortly after finishing the filming of Zombieland , Harrelson had an altercation with a TMZ photographer at New York City's LaGuardia Airport . His defense

4433-451: A result. Despite Wichita and Columbus falling for each other, Wichita abruptly leaves with Little Rock for Pacific Playland the next morning. Columbus decides to go after Wichita and convinces Tallahassee to join him. At Pacific Playland, the sisters activate all the rides and lights, only to unwittingly draw the attention of many zombies in the area. They become trapped on a drop tower ride as Tallahassee and Columbus arrive. Tallahassee lures

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4576-576: A result. In Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer's novel When Worlds Collide (1933), Earth is destroyed by the rogue planet Bronson Alpha. A selected few escape on a spaceship. In the sequel, After Worlds Collide (1934), the survivors start a new life on the planet's companion Bronson Beta, which has taken over the orbit formerly occupied by Earth. In J. T. McIntosh 's novel One in Three Hundred (1954), scientists have discovered how to pinpoint

4719-402: A sanctuary free from zombies . Development for Zombieland began in 2005, when Reese and Wernick originally wrote the film as a spec script for a television pilot . Fleischer helped develop the teleplay into a screenplay for a self-contained feature. Tony Gardner was hired as the film's special effects makeup designer, which primarily features physical prosthetics to create the look of

4862-554: A school visit to a cave. In the obscure 2013 Australian film These Final Hours , a massive asteroid hits the Atlantic Ocean dooming all life. The film follows James, who decides to head to the 'party-to-end-all-parties' and there spend the last 12 hours before the global firestorm reaches Western Australia. Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American comedian and actor. He first became known for his role as bartender Woody Boyd on

5005-410: A sea-level rise that kills most of the population (though this may be redemptive, like Noah's Flood , rather than a disaster). In Greg Bear 's The Forge of God (1987), Earth is destroyed in an alien attack. Just prior to this, a different group of aliens is able to save samples of the biosphere and a small number of people, resettling them on Mars. Some of these form the crew of a ship to hunt down

5148-597: A shelter puppy. Zombieland was filmed in digital, using the Panavision Genesis digital camera and had a 41-day shooting schedule. The theme-park scenes for the film's climax, Pacific Playland, were mostly shot in Valdosta 's local theme park Wild Adventures Water and Theme Park. Some of the amusement rides prominently featured in the film include Pharaoh's Fury, the Double Shot (redubbed "Blast Off"),

5291-410: A short documentary on the life and career of RFK Jr, narrated by Harrelson. With a career portfolio of filmography and other performances spanning a variety of genres, Harrelson is known for his roles both in front of and behind the camera on several projects. His acting credits have earned him global recognition, having garnered him nominations for seven Primetime Emmy Awards , three Academy Awards ,

5434-401: A spacecraft that will go to an unknown destination away from the destroyed Earth. The later books deal with the few survivors waking up from a 500-year hibernation and succumbing to both strange mutations and the will of a strange alien computer/spaceship that they land on. Eventually they return to Earth to find a couple colonies of survivors struggling on a harsh planet completely different from

5577-552: A technological past "protruding into a more primitive... landscape", a theme known as the "ruined Earth", have been described as "among the most potent of [science fiction]'s icons". Ancient Mesopotamian texts containing the oldest surviving apocalyptic literature , including the Eridu Genesis and the Epic of Gilgamesh , both of which date to around 2000-1500 BCE. Both describe angry gods sending floods to punish humanity, and

5720-460: A vegetarian diet for 11 months. The cameo role was originally written for Patrick Swayze , as a zombified, dancing character, including references to highlights of Swayze's career, even including a recreation of the potter's wheel scene from Ghost . However, Swayze was battling pancreatic cancer at the time and was too sick to make it to set. Swayze died in September 2009. Later versions of

5863-740: A while back in San Antonio they shot and killed a federal judge", which is a reference to his father Charles Harrelson , who murdered John H. Wood Jr. In 2020, Harrelson was seen practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu while filming, having received the first stripe on his white belt . Harrelson is a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals . In 2023, Harrelson's longtime friend and True Detective co-star/co-executive producer Matthew McConaughey stated that he and Harrelson could potentially be brothers. McConaughey's mother claimed to have been intimate with Harrelson's father, Charles Harrelson, around

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6006-735: A zombie. The two men find a yellow Hummer H2 loaded with weapons and continue on before running into another trap set by the girls, who take them hostage. Tallahassee steals his gun back and has a stand-off with Wichita, until Columbus intervenes saying that they have bigger problems to worry about, resulting in an uneasy truce between them. The sisters reveal they are going to the Pacific Playland amusement park in Los Angeles , an area supposedly free of zombies. After learning his hometown has been destroyed, and his parents likely killed, Columbus and Tallahassee decide to accompany them to

6149-414: Is "how you present yourself as a zombie that determines how people will react to you" and that "once the contact lenses go in", he thinks "all bets are off". Gardner said he was excited about working on the film with first-time filmmaker Ruben Fleischer, who gave him free rein in his zombie design. "[We] are just trying to be real extreme with it", stated Gardner, "and trying to balance the scares out with

6292-613: Is a fan of chess. In November 2018, he attended the first game of the World Chess Championship in London, played between Norwegian champion Magnus Carlsen and American contender Fabiano Caruana . He made the ceremonial first move for the game. He had also played the ceremonial first move for the previous World Chess Championship , held in New York in 2016. In 1999 in Prague, Woody Harrelson, playing White employed

6435-481: Is a humorous take on alien invasion stories. Multiple Earths are repeatedly "demolished" by the bureaucratic Vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass, to the chagrin of the protagonist Arthur Dent . In Gene Wolfe 's The Urth of the New Sun (1987), aliens (or highly evolved humans) introduce a white hole into the sun to counteract the dimming effect of a black hole , and the resulting global warming causes

6578-522: Is about a cataclysmic comet hitting Earth and various groups of people struggling to survive the aftermath in southern California. Hollywood—which previously had explored the idea of the Earth and its population being potentially endangered by a collision with another heavenly body with the When Worlds Collide (1951), a film treatment of the aforementioned 1933 novel – revisited the theme in

6721-647: Is an enthusiast and supporter of the legalization of marijuana and hemp . He was a guest on Ziggy Marley 's track "Wild and Free", a song advocating the growing of cannabis. Since 2003, Harrelson has served as a member on NORML 's advisory board. Harrelson has attended environmental events such as the PICNIC'07 festival that was held in Amsterdam in September 2007. PICNIC describes its annual festival as "three intensive days [when] we mix creativity, science, technology, media, and business to explore new solutions in

6864-493: Is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism ". Lord Byron 's 1816 poem "Darkness" , included in The Prisoner of Chillon collection, on the apocalyptic end of the world and one man's survival, was one of the earliest English-language works in this genre. The sun was blotted out, leading to darkness and cold which kills off mankind through famine and ice-age conditions. The poem

7007-431: Is essentially a retelling of the Book of Revelation , combined with themes of the story of Adam and Eve . Unlike most apocalyptic tales, de Grainville's novel approaches the end of the world not as a cautionary tale, or a tale of survival, but as both an inevitable, as well as necessary, step for the spiritual resurrection of mankind. Edgar Allan Poe 's short story " The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion " (1839) follows

7150-474: Is heavily damaged, and humanity nearly wiped out, by the direct collision of the real asteroid 99942 Apophis with the Earth in the year 2029. Marly Youmans ' epic poem Thaliad (2012) tells the story of a group of children after an unspecified apocalypse from the sky, perhaps connected with solar flares or meteor impact, resulting in people and animals having been burned and the skies having filled with ash. The children survive only because they were together on

7293-410: Is inevitably left as the last man alive. Shelley's novel is predated by Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville 's French epic prose poem Le Dernier Homme (English: The Last Man [1805]), and this work is sometimes considered the first modern work to depict the end of the world. Published after his death in 1805, de Grainville's work follows the character of Omegarus, the titular "last man," in what

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7436-539: Is reminiscent of H. G. Wells ' War of the Worlds (1897). Charles R. Pellegrino and George Zebrowski 's novel The Killing Star (1995) describes a devastating attack on a late-21st-century Earth by an alien civilization. Using missiles traveling at relativistic speed , they are determined to destroy the human race in a preemptive strike, as they are considered, after watching several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation which shows human domination in space,

7579-580: Is set to portray Felix Kersten in The Man with the Miraculous Hands , the feature film adaptation of Joseph Kessel 's 1960 novel of the same title. Harrelson starred in the HBO political limited series White House Plumbers (2023) where he portrayed intelligence officer E. Howard Hunt . The series is focused on the Watergate scandal and investigation. Harrelson also executive produced

7722-800: The Genesis flood narrative is found in the 71st Chapter of the Quran ; however, unlike the Biblical story, the Quranic account explicitly claims that the deluge was only sent to the tribe of the Prophet Nūḥ ( نُوح ) ( ' Noah ' in Arabic ), and therefore, the deluge did not engulf the entire world. In the Hindu Dharmasastra , an apocalyptic deluge plays a prominent part. According to

7865-645: The Matsya Purana , the Matsya avatar of Lord Vishnu , informed the King Manu of an all-destructive deluge which would be coming very soon. The King was advised to build a huge boat (ark) which housed his family, nine types of seeds, pairs of all animals and the Saptarishis to repopulate Earth, after the deluge would end and the oceans and seas would recede. At the time of the deluge , Vishnu appeared as

8008-533: The Miloš Forman film The People vs. Larry Flynt , in which he played Larry Flynt , publisher of Hustler magazine. The film was a success and Harrelson's performance was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Actor . After that, Harrelson was cast in more serious film roles. He starred in the 1997 war film Welcome to Sarajevo and in 1997 had a featured role as Sergeant Schumann in Wag

8151-827: The NBC sitcom Cheers (1985–1993), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series from five nominations. He reprised his role in the acclaimed spinoff series Frasier in 1999 for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series nomination. Harrelson received three Academy Award nominations: Best Actor for The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), and Best Supporting Actor for both The Messenger (2009) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). Other notable films include White Men Can't Jump (1992), Natural Born Killers (1994), Kingpin (1996), The Thin Red Line (1998), Play It to

8294-469: The Parham Attack , named after Bernard Parham, to draw World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov . However, Harrelson was aided by several chess Grandmasters who were in Prague to spectate the chess match between GM Alexei Shirov and GM Judit Polgár . In 2007, he starred in the film No Country for Old Men ; both the film and the 2005 novel , set in 1980, feature a line spoken by the sheriff: "Here

8437-725: The United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility on March 15, 2007. Harrelson's family was poor and relied on his mother's wages. He attended The Briarwood School in Houston, Texas. In 1973, he moved to his mother's native city of Lebanon, Ohio , where he attended Lebanon High School , from which he graduated in 1979. He spent the summer of 1979 working at Kings Island amusement park. Harrelson attended Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana , where he studied theater and English. While there, he

8580-511: The "Arkfalls", which terraforms Earth to an almost unrecognizable state. Unlike most apocalyptic works, in this one Earth is not inhospitable, and humanity is not on the verge of extinction. The World's End is a 2013 British-American comic science fiction film directed by Edgar Wright , written by Wright and Simon Pegg , and starring Pegg, Nick Frost , Paddy Considine , Martin Freeman , Eddie Marsan and Rosamund Pike . The film follows

8723-467: The "Day of Lavos". In the video game Half-Life (1998), hostile alien creatures arrive on Earth through a portal after a scientific experiment goes wrong. In its sequel, Half-Life 2 (2004), it is revealed to the player the creatures encountered in the first game are merely the slaves of a much more powerful alien race, the Combine, who have taken over the Earth to drain its resources after subduing

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8866-507: The Air , the novel has become one of the best known early apocalyptic works. It has subsequently been reproduced or adapted several times in comic books, film, music, radio programming , television programming, and video games. Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke , in which aliens come to Earth, human children develop fantastic powers and

9009-514: The Best Supporting Actor award in the 2009 National Board of Review award ceremonies and received accolades from various critics' societies. Also that same year, Harrelson co-starred in the horror comedy Zombieland , followed by Roland Emmerich 's 2012 , where he played Charlie Frost, a man who warns of the end of the world. In 2010, he starred as a bartender and mentor in the futuristic western martial arts film Bunraku . On

9152-707: The Bone (1999), No Country for Old Men (2007), Seven Pounds (2008), Zombieland (2009), Rampart (2011), Seven Psychopaths (2012), Now You See Me (2013), The Edge of Seventeen (2016), LBJ (2016), War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), The Highwaymen (2019), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), and Triangle of Sadness (2022). He also played Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games film series (2012–2015). Harrelson received further Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in

9295-444: The Dead , forever the yuks-meet-yucks standard". Similarly, The Globe and Mail ' s Rick Groen said "It's far more charming than chilling and way more funny than frightening", though he suggested that Rule No. 32 to 'enjoy the little things' was worth observing for a light comedy. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times classified the film as "[a] minor diversion dripping in splatter and groaning with self-amusement" and lamented

9438-512: The Dog and as Will Huffman in the 1997 family film Road to Manhattan. In 1998, Harrelson starred in the thriller Palmetto and played Sergeant Keck in the Terrence Malick directed war film The Thin Red Line , which received nominations for seven Academy Awards in 1999 including for Best Picture . Harrelson made other films such as The Hi-Lo Country and portrayed Ray Pekurny in

9581-499: The Earth the Remnants knew. Melancholia (2011), the middle entry of filmmaker Lars von Trier 's "depression trilogy", ends with humanity completely wiped out by a collision with a rogue planet . The depressed protagonist reverses roles with her relatives as the crisis unfolds, as she turns out to be the only family member capable of calmly accepting the imminent impact event. In id Software 's video game Rage (2011), Earth

9724-489: The Gilgamesh version includes the ancient hero Utnapishtim and his family being saved through the intervention of the god Ea . The Biblical myth of Noah and his ark describes the destruction of the corrupt original civilization and its replacement with a remade world. Noah is assigned the task to build the ark and save two of each animal species in order to reestablish a new post-flood world. The Biblical story of

9867-660: The November 12, 2009, episode of the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report , Harrelson was interviewed by Stephen Colbert , to promote his movie The Messenger . In response to Colbert's questioning of his support for the troops, Harrelson agreed to let Colbert shave his head on camera. On June 6, 2010, Harrelson took part playing in Soccer Aid 2010 for UNICEF UK at Old Trafford in Manchester. The match

10010-622: The Rattler, the Aviator, and the Bug Out. A haunted-house facade was constructed at the theme park, but the interior was filmed on location at Netherworld Haunted House outside Atlanta. Special effects makeup designer Tony Gardner , who helped Rick Baker create the signature look of Michael Jackson 's music video " Thriller " and has contributed to other Hollywood films such as 127 Hours , Hairspray , and There's Something About Mary ,

10153-665: The UK. Select Best Buy stores sold a special edition on both DVD and Blu-ray with an additional disc featuring two featurettes. It was also released as a film for the PSP UMD . The film grossed $ 54 million in home sales. Zombieland was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 1, 2019, a few weeks before the sequel was released in theatres. The film debuted at number one at the box office in North America, with ticket sales of $ 24,733,155 over its opening weekend, averaging about $ 8,147 from 3,036 theaters, matching its production budget. It

10296-411: The amusement park. When the group reaches Hollywood, Tallahassee directs them to Bill Murray 's house. Tallahassee and Wichita meet Murray, uninfected and disguised as a zombie, and they play a prank on Columbus and Little Rock by having him pretend to be a zombie, only for Columbus to accidentally kill Murray. Columbus soon realizes that "Buck" was actually Tallahassee's son, who got infected and died as

10439-477: The atmosphere which lowered the temperature and altered weather patterns throughout the world. This was the source for Byron's poem. Mary Shelley 's novel The Last Man (1826) is a continuation of the apocalyptic theme in fiction and is generally recognized as the first major fictional post-apocalyptic story. The plot follows a group of people as they struggle to survive in a plague-infected world. The story's male protagonist struggles to keep his family safe but

10582-399: The auspices of "Woody Harrelson Educational Tours". In October 2009, he was given an honorary degree by York University for his contributions in the fields of environmental education, sustainability, and activism. In June 2010, Harrelson took part in Soccer Aid at Old Trafford in Manchester to raise money for UNICEF . Harrelson played the last 15 minutes and scored the winning goal in

10725-421: The category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series , with one win. Harrelson later returned to the small screen with roles in the comedy series Frasier and the 2012 television film Game Change , for which he received two more Emmy nominations: for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie , respectively. Aside from his numerous successes in

10868-894: The comedy EDtv . Also in 1999, he appeared as himself in a cameo at the end of the film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and later as boxer Vince Boudreau in the Ron Shelton film Play It to the Bone . In 1999, Harrelson directed his own play, Furthest from the Sun , at the Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis . He followed next in Roundabout's Broadway revival of the N. Richard Nash play The Rainmaker in 2000, Sam Shepard 's The Late Henry Moss in 2001, John Kolvenbach's On an Average Day opposite Kyle MacLachlan in London's West End in

11011-456: The comedy". He described having to makeover physically attractive actors who usually benefit from their looks as "a little off-putting" after seeing some of them in their character makeup for the first time. The zombies in Zombieland were described by the casting director as: "Ferocious, infected people who move erratically. They are diseased, as opposed to undead. These are not the lumbering walking dead of Romero 's zombie movies, but instead

11154-563: The concept of destruction that causes public interest in apocalyptic themes. Such fiction is studied by social sciences , and may provide insights into a culture's fears, as well as things like the role imagined for public administration . Since the late 20th century, a surge of popular post-apocalyptic films can be observed. Christopher Schmidt notes that, while the world "goes to waste" for future generations, we distract ourselves from disaster by passively watching it as entertainment. Some have commented on this trend, saying that "it

11297-440: The conversation between two souls in the afterlife as they discuss the destruction of the world. The destruction was brought about by a comet that removed nitrogen from Earth's atmosphere; this left only oxygen and resulted in a worldwide inferno. Similarly, Giacomo Leopardi 's short dialogue " Dialogue between a Goblin and a Gnome " (1824) features a world without the presence of the human beings, most likely because they "violate[d]

11440-470: The county jail. He was released on $ 200 bail the same day. He later signed autographs and posed for photos with deputies. He was acquitted of those charges with the help of Nunn after just 25 minutes. The events were featured in the 2010 Michael P. Henning documentary film Hempsters: Plant the Seed . In 2002, Harrelson was arrested in London after an incident in a taxi that ended in a police chase. Harrelson

11583-502: The county with his attorney, former Kentucky Governor Louie B. Nunn , an agent and a camera crew from CNN . While at a local hotel, Harrelson phoned the county sheriff, Junior Kilburn, to advise him of his intentions. Kilburn and deputy sheriff Danny Towsend arrived at the location where Harrelson informed them he would be. With the cameras rolling, Harrelson planted the hemp seeds into the ground. Once planted, Kilburn placed Harrelson under arrest for cultivating marijuana and booked him into

11726-494: The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah also has post-apocalyptic elements. The daughters of Lot , who mistakenly believe that the destruction had engulfed the whole world and that they and their father were the only surviving human beings, conclude that in such a situation it would be justified - and indeed vitally needed - to have sex with their father in order to ensure the survival of humanity. Such situations and dilemmas occur in modern post-apocalyptic fiction. A similar story to

11869-513: The elfin Eloi and the brutal Morlocks. Later in the story, the time traveler moves forward to a dying Earth beneath a swollen red sun. The War of the Worlds (1898) depicts an invasion of Earth by inhabitants of the planet Mars . The aliens systematically destroy Victorian England with advanced weaponry mounted on nearly indestructible vehicles. Due to the infamous radio adaptation of the novel by Orson Welles on his show, The Mercury Theatre on

12012-544: The entirety of Earth's governments and military forces in only seven hours. In the 2000 Don Bluth animated film Titan A.E. , Earth has been destroyed by the Drej, due to a human experimental discovery called Project Titan, which made them fear “what humanity will become”. The 2011 TV series Falling Skies , by Robert Rodat and Steven Spielberg , follows a human resistance force fighting to survive after extraterrestrial aliens attempt to take over Earth by disabling most of

12155-483: The esteemed Hart House Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, which ran from April 21 to May 7, 2011. Bullet for Adolf opened Off-Broadway (New World Stages) with previews beginning July 19, 2012, and closed on September 30, 2012, canceling its announced extension through October 21. The play was panned by New York critics. Harrelson made two films in 2006, the animated film version of Free Jimmy and also A Scanner Darkly

12298-421: The exact minute, hour, and day the Sun will go " nova " – and when it does, it will boil away Earth's seas, beginning with the hemisphere that faces the sun, and as Earth continues to rotate, it will take only 24 hours before all life is eradicated. Super-hurricanes and tornadoes are predicted. Buildings will be blown away. A race is on to build thousands of spaceships for the sole purpose of transferring evacuees on

12441-584: The fall of 2002, and in the summer of 2003, Harrelson directed the Toronto premiere of Kenneth Lonergan 's This is Our Youth at the Berkley Street Theater. Harrelson did not appear in films again until 2003, when he co-starred as Galaxia in the comedy film Anger Management . He appeared in the action film After the Sunset and the Spike Lee film She Hate Me . In 2005, Harrelson

12584-418: The female characters were called Wichita and Stillwater. Harrelson accepted the role on four conditions, two of which were about casting and crew. The third condition required the film to have an environmentally conscious set. The fourth condition required that the director will not eat dairy products for a week, a task that Fleischer described as "like for an alcoholic not to drink". He succeeded and maintained

12727-564: The first chapter of Revelation, the writer St. John the Divine explains his divine errand: "Write the things which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter" (Rev. 1:19). He takes it as his mission to convey—to reveal—to God's kingdom His promise that justice will prevail and that the suffering will be vindicated (Leigh). The apocalyptist provides a beatific vision of Judgement Day, revealing God's promise for redemption from suffering and strife. Revelation describes

12870-482: The first season of the HBO crime series True Detective , where he played Marty Hart, a Louisiana cop investigating murders that took place over a timespan of 17 years. He and McConaughey received nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series losing to Bryan Cranston for the final season of Breaking Bad . In 2015, Woody Harrelson and daughter Zoe starred in

13013-447: The first third of the 19th century, when Mary Shelley 's The Last Man (1826) was published; however, this form of literature gained widespread popularity after World War II , when the possibility of global annihilation by nuclear weapons entered the public consciousness. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change ; natural, such as an impact event ; man made, such as nuclear holocaust ; medical, such as

13156-585: The focus of the film, and felt that "all of this could have been dreary, but not here. The filmmakers show invention and well-tuned comic timing". He credited Bill Murray's cameo appearance as receiving the "single biggest laugh" of the year and gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. Murray's cameo was called out for attention by other reviewers: Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle credited it as "the single most outrageously entertaining unexpected celebrity cameo of any film—genre or otherwise—" that he had seen in

13299-468: The homeworld of the killers, as described in the sequel, Anvil of Stars (1992). Al Sarrantonio 's Moonbane (1989) concerns the origin of werewolves (he attributes it to the Moon, which is why they are so attracted to it), and an invasion after an explosion on Luna sends meteoric fragments containing latent lycanthropes to Earth, who thrive in our planet's oxygen-rich atmosphere. Moonbane ' s tone

13442-405: The impact and consequences of the event itself, or it may be post-apocalyptic, set after the event. The time may be directly after the catastrophe, focusing on the psychology of survivors, the way to keep the human race alive and together as one, or considerably later, often including that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been mythologized. Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in

13585-540: The incident appeared to show Harrelson grabbing a camera and clashing with the photographer. Los Angeles prosecutors declined to press charges against the actor, but Levine filed a suit that summer asking for $ 2.5 million in damages. The case was dismissed in April 2010. On May 13, 2022, Harrelson opened The Woods WeHo—a cannabis dispensary off Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. Harrelson

13728-439: The industry, other credits include North Country (2005), No Country for Old Men (2007), 2012 , Zombieland (both 2009), Now You See Me (2013) and its 2016 sequel , The Hunger Games film series (2012–2015), The Edge of Seventeen , LBJ (both 2016), The Glass Castle (2017) and Kate (2021), Harrelson has also starred in critically panned films, with his role in 1993's Indecent Proposal winning him

13871-488: The lack of a real plot more concrete than a series of comedy takes on zombie-slaying. The film's music was composed by David Sardy . The soundtrack was released on October 6, 2009, by Relativity Music Group . The song For Whom the Bell Tolls by the band Metallica was used in the opening credits scene. All music is composed by David Sardy Due to the film's success, writers Reese and Wernick always planned

14014-513: The late 1990s with a trio of similarly themed projects. Asteroid (1997) is an NBC-TV miniseries about the U.S. government trying to prevent an asteroid from colliding with the Earth. The following year saw dueling big-budget summer blockbuster movies Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (1998), both of which involved efforts to save the Earth from, respectively, a rogue comet and an asteroid, by landing crews upon them to detonate nuclear weapons there in hopes of destroying them. Characters in

14157-469: The latter being written and directed by Richard Linklater . In 2007 he played Carter Page III, gay escort of privileged Washington, D.C., women, in the film The Walker . In the Oscar-winning 2007 crime thriller No Country for Old Men , Harrelson had a key role as Carson Wells, a bounty hunter. The film won Best Picture and Best Director for Joel Coen and Ethan Coen . Harrelson also won

14300-584: The laws of nature, and [went] contrary to their welfare". Richard Jefferies ' novel After London (1885) can best be described as genuine post-apocalyptic fiction. After a sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature and the few survivors return to a quasi-medieval way of life. The first chapters consist solely of a description of nature reclaiming England: fields becoming overrun by forest, domesticated animals running wild, roads and towns becoming overgrown, London reverting to lake and poisonous swampland. The rest of

14443-435: The moment of scoring." In 2011, he starred as Tommy in the movie Friends with Benefits . Harrelson narrated the 2011 film ETHOS , which explores the idea of a self-destructing modern society, governed by unequal power and failed democratic ideals. Harrelson also took part in Soccer Aid 2012 on May 27, 2012. The match ended 3–1 in favor of England. He played Haymitch Abernathy in 2012's The Hunger Games , and reprised

14586-422: The outside world. Furthermore, they often explore a world without modern technology whose rapid progress may overwhelm people as human brains are not adapted to contemporary society, but evolved to deal with issues that have become largely irrelevant, such as immediate physical threats. Such works depict worlds of less complexity, direct contact, and primitive needs. It is often the concept of change as much as

14729-634: The penalty shootout following a 2–2 draw during normal time. He played in the UNICEF game 2012, playing the last 10 minutes of the game for the Rest of the World team, losing 3–1 to England. Harrelson identifies as an anarchist. In a conversation with Howard Zinn , Harrelson admitted that he considers Zinn to be a personal hero of his. In 2002, Harrelson wrote an article in the British newspaper The Guardian condemning President George W. Bush 's preparation for

14872-562: The planet is destroyed. Argentine comic writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld 's comic series El Eternauta (1957 to 1959), an alien race only mentioned by the protagonists as Ellos ("Them") invades the Earth starting with a deadly snowfall and then using other alien races to defeat the remaining humans. In Alice Sheldon 's Nebula -winning novelette " The Screwfly Solution " (1977), aliens are wiping out humanity with an airborne agent that changes men's sexual impulses to violent ones. Douglas Adams 's Hitchhiker's Guide series (1979–2009)

15015-454: The reality of the Bible being just a document to control people." He describes himself as having "a strong spiritual life". In April 2020, Harrelson made a post on Instagram promoting the conspiracy theory that claims a link between 5G networks and COVID-19 , which was later deleted. In May 2022, Harrelson said he "doesn't believe in the germ theory " and found the use of face masks as

15158-451: The role in all three subsequent films in the series which ended in 2015. In 2012, he had a leading role in the acclaimed HBO television film Game Change as republican strategist Steve Schmidt working for the 2008 Presidential campaign for John McCain and Sarah Palin . Harrelson acted alongside Julianne Moore , Sarah Paulson , and Ed Harris . The film was directed by Jay Roach and written by Danny Strong . For his performance he

15301-927: The script considered Sylvester Stallone , Joe Pesci , Mark Hamill , Dwayne Johnson , Kevin Bacon , Jean-Claude Van Damme or Matthew McConaughey as the celebrity. The actor cast in the part dropped out a week before filming, and Harrelson made a few calls and was able to get Bill Murray to play the part instead. According to Harrelson most of the scene was improvised. Principal photography began February 2009 in Hollywood, California, with scenes being shot at Scream Fest Theme Park and other locations. Filming continued in March in Atlanta , Hapeville , Morrow , Decatur , Newnan and Powder Springs, Georgia , where actress Abigail Breslin celebrated her 13th birthday by adopting

15444-421: The script, but with the main actors of the original film likely not returning. The television program was planned to begin in the fall of 2012. These plans did not come to fruition. In January 2013, it was revealed that the casting call for the production just went out for the main characters, with a few changes to the movie for the show and the addition of two new characters, Atlanta and Ainsley. In March 2013, it

15587-514: The series. Also in 2023, he starred in Champions , as a disgraced coach coerced to head up a Special Olympics basketball team, featuring many actors with special needs. In 1985, Harrelson married Nancy Simon (daughter of playwright Neil Simon ) in Tijuana . The union was not intended to be serious, and the two had planned to divorce the following day, but the storefront marriage/divorce parlor

15730-670: The show. For this role, Harrelson was nominated for five Emmy Awards , winning once in 1989. His character, Woody Boyd, was from Hanover, Indiana , where Harrelson attended college. In 1999, Harrelson guest-starred in the Cheers spin-off success Frasier , in which he reprised the role of Woody Boyd. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for this performance. He appeared in several 2001 episodes of Will & Grace as Grace's new boyfriend Nathan. While still working on Cheers , Harrelson restarted his film career. His first movie had been Wildcats ,

15873-431: The six-part ITV television drama serial The Last Train (1999) awaken from a cryogenic sleep after an asteroid the size of Birmingham strikes Africa, causing a worldwide apocalypse. K. A. Applegate 's 2001–2003 book series, Remnants , details the end of the world by asteroid collision. The first book, The Mayflower Project (2001), describes Earth in a sort of hysteria as 80 people are chosen by NASA to board

16016-474: The spirit of co-creation". He once scaled the Golden Gate Bridge with members of North Coast Earth First! group to unfurl a banner that read, "Hurwitz, aren't ancient redwoods more precious than gold?" in protest of Maxxam Inc. CEO Charles Hurwitz , who once stated, "He who has the gold, makes the rules." Harrelson once traveled to the west coast in the U.S. on a bike and a domino caravan with

16159-562: The stark Will Smith drama Seven Pounds as a blind vegan meat salesman named Ezra Turner. In 2009, Harrelson received significant praise for his role as Captain Tony Stone in The Messenger . In what many critics considered to be his best role, Harrelson was nominated for a Independent Spirit Award , a Golden Globe Award , a Screen Actors Guild Award , and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Harrelson has also won

16302-428: The story is a straightforward adventure/quest set many years later in the wild landscape and society, but the opening chapters set an example for many later science fiction stories. H.G. Wells wrote several novels that have a post-apocalyptic theme. The Time Machine (1895) has the unnamed protagonist traveling to the year 802,701 A.D. after civilization has collapsed and humanity has split into two distinct species,

16445-474: The super jacked up 28 Days Later / Dawn of the Dead zombies. They are scary, gnarly, and gross. Harrelson had input into the wardrobe for his character, Tallahassee. "I never worked so long and hard on an outfit in my life," he stated. "What this guy wears is who he is. You want to get a sense of this guy as soon as you see him. So I pick out the necklaces, the sunglasses. But the hat? The minute you see that on Tallahassee, you buy him. He's real. And he's got

16588-541: The then-highest grossing zombie film in the U.S. until the release of World War Z (2013), and $ 54 million in home sales. A sequel, Zombieland: Double Tap , was released in October 2019. Two months since a strain of mad cow disease mutated to become infectious to humans and turn them into zombies, survivors of the epidemic are advised to use their city of origin as nicknames when meeting other survivors, to not get too attached to them and protect themselves. Columbus,

16731-478: The time of McConaughey's conception. Harrelson follows a raw vegan diet. Along with not eating meat or dairy, Harrelson does not eat sugar or flour. In Zombieland , in which he plays a character with an affinity for Twinkies , the Twinkies were replaced with vegan faux-Twinkies made from cornmeal . He appeared on a postage stamp (as a PhotoStamp) in 2011 as one of PETA 's 20 famous vegetarians, and he

16874-629: The travails or psychology of survivors, the way to maintain the human race alive and together as one, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten (or mythologized). Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in a non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of society and technology remain. Other themes may be cybernetic revolt , divine judgment , dysgenics , ecological collapse , pandemic , resource depletion , supernatural phenomena , technological singularity , or some other general disaster. The relics of

17017-545: The website Reddit . The AMA turned into a PR disaster when Harrelson failed to make meaningful responses to any questions and soon specifically refused to respond to anything not directly related to the then-upcoming worldwide release of the crime drama Rampart (2011), in which he starred and received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead . Harrelson returned to television in 2014, starring along with Matthew McConaughey in

17160-400: The world's technology and destroying its armed forces in a surprise attack. It is implied that the attacking aliens are in reality former victims of an attack on their own planet and are now the slaves of an unseen controller race. The television series Defiance (2013–2015) is set in an Earth devastated by the "Pale Wars", a war with seven alien races referred to as the "Votan", followed by

17303-487: The world. The world's destruction includes fire and flood consuming the earth while mythic beasts do battle with the Aesir gods, during which they all perish in an event called Ragnarök . After the destruction, a pair of humans, a man and woman, find the world renewed and the god Baldr resurrected. Such works often feature the loss of a global perspective as protagonists are on their own, often with little or no knowledge of

17446-478: The zombie subgenre is far from dead." On Metacritic , which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews from mainstream critics, the film holds a score of 73 out of 100 based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore during the opening weekend, gave Zombieland an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert was surprised by Zombieland ' s ability to be significantly humorous while zombies remained

17589-664: The zombie-infested world. By the end of the film, his list has 33 rules, yet only a few are mentioned. A series of promotional videos starring Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg expanded on the list presented in the film. Wichita and Little Rock have their own rule: "Trust no one. Just you and me." The main characters do not use each other's real names but identify themselves using place names ( Columbus , Tallahassee , Wichita , and Little Rock ) that relate to them. This includes Columbus's neighbor, named 406 after her room, and his fictional sexual conquest Beverly Hills, as well as Sister Cynthia Knickerbocker, whom Columbus identifies as

17732-410: The zombies to a game booth and kills several as Columbus heads to the drop tower; he evades and shoots through a horde and safely helps the girls down. Wichita kisses Columbus and reveals her real name: Krista. Deciding to stick together from now on, the group then leaves Pacific Playland. A running gag (and a central theme throughout the film) is the list of rules Columbus comes up with for surviving in

17875-762: The zombies. Principal photography for the film began in February 2009 and lasted until that March, with filming locations including Hollywood , Atlanta , and in and around Georgia . Some of the film's scenes contained improvisation by the actors. Zombieland premiered at Fantastic Fest in Austin on September 25, 2009, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 2, by Sony Pictures Releasing . The film received positive critical reception, with praise for its screenplay, dialogue, comedy, and cast performances. It grossed $ 102 million worldwide, becoming

18018-656: Was a box office success, earning a worldwide total of over $ 265,000,000. He then played Mickey Knox in Oliver Stone 's Natural Born Killers and Dr. Michael Raynolds in the Michael Cimino film The Sunchaser . Starred alongside Kiefer Sutherland in The Cowboy Way (1994). In 1996, he starred in the comedy Kingpin for the Farrelly brothers . Harrelson's career gained momentum when he starred in

18161-509: Was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and became friends with future vice president Mike Pence . He graduated in 1983. Harrelson is widely known for his work on the NBC sitcom Cheers . He played bartender Woody Boyd , who replaced Coach (played by Nicholas Colasanto , who died in February 1985). He joined the cast in 1985 in season four, spending the final eight seasons (1985–1993) on

18304-436: Was also praised by Ty Burr of The Boston Globe , who said the film "makes no claims to greatness", but that what it "has instead—in spades—is deliciously weary end-of-the-world banter". Michael Ordona of Los Angeles Times praised director Fleischer for "bring[ing] impeccable timing and bloodthirsty wit to the proceedings". Some reviewers saw deeper levels in the plot and cinematography; cinematographer Michael Bonvillain

18447-415: Was announced that Amazon Studios had ordered a pilot episode. Reese, Wernick, and Polone were joined by Eli Craig , who directed the pilot. Tyler Ross plays Columbus, Kirk Ward plays Tallahassee, Maiara Walsh plays Wichita and Izabela Vidovic plays Little Rock. A new character named Detroit (voiced by Kendra Fountain) was introduced as an ex- OnStar operator, serving as the gang's navigator. The pilot

18590-488: Was born in Midland, Texas , to secretary Diane (née Oswald) and convicted hitman Charles Voyde Harrelson . He was raised in a Presbyterian household alongside his two brothers, Jordan and Brett , the latter of whom also became an actor. Their father received a life sentence for the 1979 killing of federal judge John H. Wood Jr. Harrelson has stated he had little contact with his father during childhood. Charles died in

18733-481: Was broadcast live on UK's ITV television. After being brought on as a substitute for Gordon Ramsay , Harrelson took the final penalty in the penalty shootout , following a 2–2 draw after 91.2 minutes. Despite being initially unaware of exactly from where his kick had to be taken, Harrelson scored to win the game for "The Rest of the World" team, beating England for the first time since the tournament began. When later interviewed, he claimed that he "didn't even remember

18876-465: Was brought on to design the look of the film's zombies. Michael Bonvillain, who was Cloverfield ' s cinematographer , was brought on for the "lively" hand-held camerawork. "Basically, it's the end of the world; the entire nation is zombies", stated Gardner. "And [the humans] are trying to get from the east coast to the west coast". For one shooting scene, Gardner said, "There were 160 zombies, in prosthetics , on set in an amusement park". He said it

19019-496: Was closed when they returned to it and they remained married for another ten months. In 2008, he married Laura Louie, a co-founder of the organic food delivery service Yoganics. They met in 1987 when she worked as his personal assistant. They reside in Maui, Hawaii , and have three daughters (born in 1993, 1996, and 2006). Harrelson was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL) from Hanover College in 2014. Harrelson

19162-641: Was credited as having the second-highest-grossing start on record for a zombie film behind the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, and as "the first American horror comedy in recent memory to find significant theatrical success". The film grossed $ 60.8 million in 17 days, becoming the top-grossing zombie film in history; the record was previously held by the Dawn of the Dead remake. It was later surpassed by Resident Evil: Afterlife which grossed over $ 290 million worldwide and World War Z which grossed over $ 540 million worldwide. Zombieland closed on December 13, 2009, with

19305-644: Was in The Big White and North Country . Also in 2005 he appeared as Kelly Ryan, husband of a contest-obsessed woman in the film The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio . In the winter of 2005–2006 Harrelson returned to London's West End, starring in Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana at the Lyric Theater . Harrelson directed Bullet for Adolf (a play he wrote with Frankie Hyman) at

19448-528: Was influential in the emergence of "the last man" theme which appeared in the works of several poets, such as "The Last Man" by Thomas Campbell (1824) and "The Last Man" (1826) by Thomas Hood , as well as "The Last Man" by Thomas Lovell Beddoes . The year 1816 was known as the Year Without a Summer because Mount Tambora had erupted in the Dutch East Indies in 1815 that emitted sulphur into

19591-448: Was named PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2012 (along with Jessica Chastain ). Harrelson was a religious Presbyterian as a child, and studied theology during college. Harrelson told Playboy in October 2009, "I was getting into theology and studying the roots of the Bible, but then I started to discover the man-made nature of it. I started seeing things that made me ask, 'Is God really speaking through this instrument?' My eyes opened to

19734-552: Was nominated for numerous accolades including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie , the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film , and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie . On February 3, 2012, he participated in an "Ask Me Anything" session on

19877-422: Was once again a critical and financial success. On the possibility of a third film, Fleischer can not decide if the cast will return or not. He has stated that he "would love to do a Madison stand-alone movie." In October 2011, it was reported that Fox Broadcasting Company and Sony Pictures were considering a television adaption of the series to be aired on CBS , with Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese writing

20020-409: Was praised for capturing "some interesting images amid the postapocalyptic carnival of carnage, as when he transforms the destruction of a souvenir shop into a rough ballet", while Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com said, "the picture is beautifully paced" and highlighted "a halcyon middle section where, in what could be viewed as a sideways homage to Rebel Without a Cause , our rootless wanderers share

20163-573: Was released in April 2013 on Lovefilm and at Amazon Video . On May 17, 2013, Rhett Reese, creator of the TV adaptation, announced that Zombieland: The Series would not be picked up to be a series by Amazon. Reese commented on the fan backlash, saying "I'll never understand the vehement hate the pilot received from die-hard Zombieland fans. You guys successfully hated it out of existence." Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction The story may involve attempts to prevent an apocalypse event, deal with

20306-401: Was taken to a London police station and later released on bail. The case was later dismissed after Harrelson paid the taxi driver involved in the incident £550 ($ 844). This became the inspiration for his 2017 live-streamed film Lost in London . In 2008, TMZ photographer Josh Levine filed a lawsuit against Harrelson for an alleged attack outside a Hollywood nightclub in 2006. A video of

20449-613: Was that he was still in character and thought the cameraman was a zombie. The special-effects team created several visual elements, including "The Rules for Survival", which appear on-screen as they are related to the audience by Columbus: "Do cardio ", "Beware of bathrooms", "Check the back seat", and so forth. The texts are rendered in three dimensions . "When a previously stated rule becomes relevant—when nature calls, for instance—the relevant text pops up, occasionally getting splattered with blood." Slate 's Josh Levin said, "The pop-up bit works precisely because Zombieland unspools like

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